14 Years
by AgentOfAngst
Summary: Set during The Town Where Everyone Was Nice. It's been 14 years since Donald, Jose, and Panchito were carefree college kids. If everything has changed, will his friends like who he is now?


**Frank Angones stating on Tumblr that Della and Donald are 36 and The Legend of The Three Caballeros show on Disney made me want to write this introspective look into The Town Where Everyone Was Nice, specifically focusing on Donald's possible reservations and insecurities about seeing his friends again. **

**Enjoy, and if you liked it or if you have ideas about other Ducktales adventures I could write, let me know!**

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Every seven years the cells in your body will have completely replaced themselves. Which means every seven years, you are a completely different person. This is not the only thing that marks the differences in you now and you seven years ago. It's just a scientific example that Donald read somewhere. It's been 14 years since the carefree days of college with his best friends and bandmates. In 14 years you can become a completely different person. Twice. They'd seen each other briefly when the boys were eggs, but Donald had essentially been the same person then. Now he was 14 years different. Now his boys were 11, his sister was missing and his relationship with his uncle was strained. Now he was responsible. Adult. Now he was 36- how had that happened?

"It's just a vacation," Donald told himself. He was psyching himself up for this, trying his hardest to not freak out and bail.

He'd been 22 and the concept of parenthood was so far away. In reality, he thought back, only 3 years away. He wouldn't change that for the world, he loved his boys, but they'd come with troubling circumstances and they had changed him. The cells that had replaced the cells that had thought that he could run the world with his music were long gone. The cells that remained weren't even familiar with that version of him, even in passing. The cells that remained knew only the version of Donald that his boys called uncool. His friends expected him to be the cool one! How was he going to be the cool one if he wasn't cool?

"This is going to be great. Maybe they haven't changed that much. We were a bunch of knuckleheads back then, just doing our best…"

"But I've changed so much, Jose and Panchito will definitely have changed too." He sighed and fiddled with his hat.

"Donald, are you ready to go, lad? This ridiculous trip was your idea, to begin with." Uncle Scrooge was clearly super supportive.

"I'm coming!" He tried to appear more excited than he was anxious.

"And it's not ridiculous, this is going to be a lot of fun!" If he talked like he was excited, then he could fake it till he made it. That was something he had learned in anger management. Present like you're not irritated, anxious, or miserable and you might just believe it. Smile until you were happier.

Then Huey started questioning him about who his friends were and why they hadn't talked in a while and Donald panicked. Why hadn't they talked in a while? Sure, Jose had offered to treat the three of them to this excursion but did the other Caballeros even like him anymore? What if they thought he had changed too much? Become boring or a sellout for the sake of his kids? 14 years ago he'd been relatively fearless, running off on adventures and never backing down from a fight. Ducks don't back down. Now he wanted a nap more than an adventure, now he played it safe unless his family was in danger.

He looked around at his family. His Uncle, his boys, Webby, his honorary 4th kid. His heart hurt when he thought about how 14 years ago, he had had a sister. That's how he'd been so fearless, she had had his back. The Caballeros always had his back too. They had been like his brothers, Della was his sister, and he had nothing to fear because together they were immortal. Together they were unstoppable. And then 14 years had passed, and he was no longer unstoppable. Maybe because they weren't together anymore, the four of them, or maybe because it had been naive to think you could live forever. He just wished he hadn't learned it the hard way.

What if Jose and Panchito didn't like his family? What if they didn't like the kids? If his cool college friends, his friends of 14 years and two whole sets of cells ago didn't like his kids then they didn't like him anymore. Because his family was his life. Sure, maybe he wanted to go back to those days, those cells, but he wasn't the same person anymore. What if they didn't like that? What if they couldn't like that?

Donald didn't give himself a chance to find out. He was a different person now and it scared him because he wasn't comfortable in his own skin, he didn't trust that he was likable or cool now. So he lied. To make his friends like him as much as they had before, he lied. It was a good charade too, pretending to be a multibillionaire, just for this weekend. It wouldn't exactly put him in Scrooge's good graces, but he already wasn't in Scrooge's good graces so that didn't really matter. Right now, his image felt more important. Right now, lying felt like the only way Donald could feel important at all.

It didn't seem to matter how many reality checks he got. Huey and Scrooge demanding that he have some self-respect and tell the truth. He didn't have self-respect. He felt small compared to his famous and successful friends. They were nothing like they were in college and neither was he and that made things worse. They had done such cool things with their lives. He wasn't even good as a father.

At least when he was being a father he knew where he found his purpose. Lying and trying to reignite the good old days just made him feel sadder and more full of self-loathing. When he was protecting his family, that's when he felt real. And when they were in danger, he let the lies drop. He wasn't a billionaire and he wasn't the same as he had been. And then, all of a sudden, his friends were okay with that. They didn't mind that 14 years had passed and Donald was different now. They were different too, but in a way, they were exactly the same young and naive knuckleheads as they had been. And, in the grand scheme of things, the three Caballeros were all small. They weren't big deals but together, when they fought to save Donald's family, they were unstoppable once again.


End file.
